NaamKyun.com Discussion Forum

hello to all,

once every couple of months i run a simple test of strength and conditioning in my school. this week we had following disciplines:

- pull ups (tactical pulll up - all fingers over, wide grip, chest touches the bar)
best scores: 17, 15, 12

- jaat ma (horse stance, fists at the waist)
best scores: 23:15, 22:57, 21:13

- push-ups (narrow grip, chest to the floor, pause at the top, pause at the bottom)
best scores: 72, 65, 63

- abdominal exercise (iron board bridge - you sit on your butt, lift your legs and body a bit and hold for as slong as possible)
best scores: 3:03, 2:09, 2:07

-set - students have choosen set they like to perform - i have judged sequence, correct form, power, speed and spirit, i gave marks 1 (best) to 5 (worst)
- best scores: 2, nobody got 1

----

any tips for the next test? some skills are hard to judge, like explosive power, bridge power, punching power... i want to address as many strength types as possible (maximum, explosive, strength, endurance etc. strength)

thnx for all tips

Question first regarding the Jaat Ma... do you have them hold it low so everything is parallel or is it at a balanced and moderate height?

You could test wrist strength by making them hold onto long heavy poles

To test rooting and bridging maybe you can implement a push-hands like competition. Not all out sparring mind you... that's a slightly different skill set.

Is there a... balance test? Granted not a lot of single legged techniques in Hung Gar but that one kick in fu hok comes to mind as requiring a level of balance if you ever plan on pulling it off. Not only does it have to test balance but it has to produce enough force to be efficacious if used... <--- this sounds so silly but I'll keep it anyway.

My two cents.

have them sit in horse stance and hold a log like 30-50 lbs above their head arms just shy of full extended and have them do it for as long as they can their chest arms back even abs and legs will be tested. Kind of a full body test. And since most of our Kung fu relies on the strength of all of the above it'll be a good way to gauge their full body conditioning. Or you could take it further and when their arms get tired from holding it above have them hold it out in from after it gets to tired from holding it straight up then when they get tired from straight out. Have them take it up again until they can't do it anymore. And lastly if you want to take it to the extreme do the above and have two partners one on each side kick them in the abs and back "NOT HARD" at first but enough to test thier muscle control, thier ability to take punishment or shock to the muslces while trying to stay centered and focused. This is also an amazing conditioning exercise.

Anyways good luck